Risky Brisket

abundell

It was a pretty good plan...

I had an 8AM conference call so I got up at 6, cup o' joe, and fired up the egg. Wanted to preheat to 350 then back down to 250 (I don't often preheat... I was just trying it out. I was also kinda experimenting and splitting the difference between an Elder Ward brisket at 275 and other recipes at 225.) As (bad) luck would have it, it took too long to get up to temp and back down, so, I got it to about 350, threw the brisket on, shut down the vents, and went on my call.

Normally, when I put the meat on and shut down the vents, the temp drops quickly, so I figured a few minutes at 350 before dropping wouldn't hurt. Yesterday, I came back after my call and to my horror, the egg temp had hardly dropped. The internal temp was crawling toward 140. Panic!! I kept the egg shuttered and it finally dropped down to 240. I let it go to 225. The internal temp soon got to 171 and hovered (thankfully) for at least a couple of hours. I went on another call. Came back and the egg had now dropped to 190 as the internal hit 178! I was going nuts. I opened the lid and the fire had gone out!! Big ole hole in the middle. That has never happened before (This working thing with conference calls has GOT to go!). So I pulled the brisket out, took out the drip tray, stone and grid, and relit the fire. Pulled out a few take-out menus figuring the brisket was DOA.

I put it all back together and managed to get the temp back to about 240. The meat hit 170 again and hovered for another hour before climbing to about 196 when I pulled it. Wrapped it in foil, stuck it in a cooler and said a prayer.

Unwrapped that sucker at 6PM (it was about a 5 pounder and it cooked for about 7-8 hrs). It was FABULOUS! Nice and crusty on the outside, moist and juicy inside, with a little smoke ring around the edge. Now it mighta been even better had I not screwed it up to a fare-thee-well, but I was amazed. Maybe I'm crazy, but I figure it had to have been the forgiveness of the egg. I can't imagine screwing up a recipe like that on any other kind of grill/smoker/oven and be able to enjoy what came off it.

Big Easy Egg

Welcome to the Land of the Egg!

Jimmy
Come visit NOLA

Michael B

abundell wrote:

(This working thing with conference calls has GOT to go!).

um,,
Wireless speaker phone?

Davekatz

Cooking on the BGE is a lovely thing, isn't it?

Despite what went wrong, figure what went right - as far as the brisket is concerned, you cooked it over a long period of time at an average of 270°F or so until it hit over 190° internal. That's about all you really need for a successful brisket.

Dave

abundell

That's actually what I was thinking (I'm a ****-eyed optimist in real life). It seemed as if it was on its way to a bad dream, but it turned out fine. I always thought it would taste OK... I just thought it would be like shoe leather since it got high heat early. In some ways, getting that second shot at hovering at 170 for another hour may have helped it get tender. But yeah, the basics were there and the results were downright delicious.

abundell

I actually have a cordless phone with a headset and TWO mute buttons (just in case). The problem was that the call was with my boss and a couple of VPs. Even if I could have stepped away from my desk, I had to pay attention and certainly couldn't have done anything with the Egg. But thanks for the tip.